Why? Why greatly reduce an Ogre's stats? As is they are barely worth taking over almost any other orc squad. For example, the Orc Impaler Vs Ogre if they are both specced for max dmg, max res, and remainder *12* in health*

When you put it this way, Ogre does look OP doesn't it? But just like many things, it isn't really how it looks on paper. For example, lets look at just a few differences between these 2 who fulfill a similar role.

Rage Cost: 1300 health. 400 instantly, and 900 over 30 seconds. This gives the ogre 400 more attack. So without this, a max dmg Ogre is sitting at around 1015.

Charge Cost: 50 stamina, with a cd of 30 seconds, and lasts just as long. This beauty gives the Impalers a whopping 125% more dmg during the duration *which can be chained together to maintain, just stamina heavy* This ability makes a Mounted Impaler go from 592 per unit, to an amazing 1132. All 10 together would then have 11320 damage. Talk about focus fire.

Battle Stand: without this, the MI have only 468 attack not bad. It does however also add defenses in the form of 25/20/0. It costs 15 stamina to active, and .75 per second to maintain. Talk about a drain when they are charging. Granted, since MI are usually after archers they tend to hang out in Serpent stand which makes them incredibly fast even with 0 points put into endurance.

I compare these two because they fill almost the same role, but not quite. While MI are a amazing strike Calvary, they also have neutral footing with other Calvary unlike MS, but lack a dmg bonus vs infantry other than archers. The Ogre on the other hand, has a dmg boost against Calvary and heavy armor infantry. They are however weak against pikes, just like MI, but unlike MI, they are also weak against Archers.

I would also like to mention the affects of AoE healing on the two different units. For a base, lets use the Orc Shaman and his aoe heal *512 or so range* that heals 1500 damage. While the heal remains the same, its affect on each unit is drastically different due to how many are in each squad. The ogre, being a one man squad, only heals 1500 heal or so as prescribed. The IM on the other hand, just like every other squad, receives drastically more healing. I might even dare to say 10x more *though, it doesn't seem to add up to that, likely due to resurrecting fallen units within the squad, but they were not there for the heal itself so gain no benefit from it*. A IM that has all 10 units still *but is very injured* can be healed to full in 1-2 casts, because all AoE heals affect things by unit, not squad. On top of this is the compounding problem that to have its high damage out put, an Ogre has to spend 1300 of its health... While the IM benefits from multiple units and the ability to make use of stamina more, the Ogre has to use its health for both its survival, and its offense if it wants to do its max dmg.

Not to mention that while their aoe swing can be quite deadly, it is a fairly small arc that aims for directly in front of the Ogre. Unlike IM though, an Ogre can easily be surrounded for max incoming damage, and they tend to die very fast if focused. The only time an Ogre can survive is it retreats slightly to force enemies into the rest of your army, or for it to be receiving such pitiful damage that it just doesn't matter. If a squad of IM gets focused, they can easily outrun any that would attack them and can draw enemy lines to thin so the rest of your army can strike a fatal blow. Even then, should IM be focused, they have their own self heals and not needing to rely on support units. While small in comparison to the orc shamans heal, at a measly 250 per unit, it has only a cd of 5 seconds. Which, if you do the math, ends up being the exact same Hps to cd ratio as shaman heal, just with a drastically higher stamina cost to use it that many times.

While Ogres do have some nice features themselves, such as the ability to attack gates *laughable due to such low dmg* and the fact that they can pop their dmg high for a short amount of time in aoe, they just do not constitute a nerf at this time. While its dmg bonus vs heavy armor infantry and cavalry is useful, if its stats are *greatly reduced* then it would make a lot more sense to simply replace them all with beserkers who kill other infantry an an insane pace as well, they have a much higher dmg potential vs infantry than even IM. While I may lose some anti-cavalry, it just does not make sense to nerf Ogres.

The only plus side that they have a significant edge over the other units that you can spec for dmg, is the fact that they can just stand in a Thunder Storm and survive the entire time, where as anything with many units dies rather fast even if tank specced. This is an entire separate issue however.

There should really be an open discussion between the players and the devs concerning balance, transparency and explanations for nerfs or buffs that may come, may lead to less people having their armies completely changed, it would also give each player the chance to defend themselves rather than to just ride the nerf/buff train.

I hope that you at least read my entire post and say why you came to this decision on Ogres, because as is, it makes no sense at all.

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"To underestimate a Goblin Horde is to stare into the face of Hell and think it to be heaven." ~ Svulnar, The Goblin King

Last edited by Svulnar : 01-27-2014 at 07:41 PM.
Reason: fixing spelling errors made due to headache.